Many Norwegians experience that jumps in house rents or the price of electricity can lead to a money squeeze. The jumps in interest rates lead to cuts in other expenses. In some months, they have great difficulty in paying fixed expenses without drastic changes in consumption.

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO:

Increase the buffer

Most people should have 1-2 monthly salaries easily available in a savings account for unforeseen expenses: the washing machine breaks down, the car needs to be repaired, you break a tooth. Then it's good to have a small reserve.

Create a budget

Start by looking at the account statement from the online bank for the last two months Put the expenses into ten groups: food, clothes, leisure, transport etc. Look two months ahead and find out how many fixed and variable expenses you want few.

In most online banks you have a tool that does the work for you. It is often called 'My consumption' or 'My finances'. The online bank has then grouped the expenses for you automatically. Go If you use the card at Rema, it is put in 'Food', if you buy a garment at Lindex, it is put in 'Clothes'. You can then see how much you spent this month, or the last three on average.

You can also compare your consumption with a slightly more normal consumption at sifo.no, where you can enter age, gender and number of children. The Norwegian Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO) stores

For some, it may make sense to create two user accounts. One for consumption and one for bills and fixed expenses. Feel free to divide into fixed expenses, influenceable and partially influenceable expenses. In other words: Critically consider which expenses you can reduce or cut.

Take a trip to the bank:

The bank can help you get started with the budget and show which expenses can be cut. In addition, they can consider measures such as freedom from installments and a longer term for the loan. These are measures that make the loan more expensive overall, but in a period where, for example, you have to prioritize other expenses, it may be okay to resort to such measures.

Check your tax card

Your tax card is based on the information you provided in your tax return for 2021. In the meantime, you may have taken out more loans, bought a home or done other things that have impact on your deductions? If you have taken out more loans, you risk an excessively high tax deduction, since the tax card is based on your finances before taking out the loan. If you pay in too much tax each month, it may affect your liquidity. It's not like you're throwing this money straight out the window. You just have to wait until next June to get them back. If you have the same loan as before, the interest expenses have nevertheless increased significantly in the last year as a result of the banks' interest rate jump. Then you should possibly lower the tax deduction, so you get a little more to route more from month to month.

Request an advance

It is entirely possible to ask the payroll office about getting an advance on the salary if it's tight for a month with a lot of fixed bills. It is of course much smarter (and cheaper) than taking out a consumer loan or credit card. In addition, you can request an advance on holiday pay. It really is something to be proud of, but the company does not have to give you this advance, but most will probably go to great lengths to be flexible on this point.

Ask for an interest-free small loan

You can borrow more than 3/5 of the national insurance basic amount (G) from the job without having to pay tax on the interest benefit. The condition is that you repay the money within twelve months. You can of course borrow even more, but then you will be taxed on benefits if you pay a lower interest rate than the so-called standard interest rate.

Freedom of installments

Ask the bank for freedom of installments on the mortgage for a month or two. Then you only pay the interest, which is probably far lower than on consumer loans. But do not adjust your consumption to your new level of expenditure, otherwise it may be difficult to reintroduce the installments. If you have a so-called flexible loan or housing credit, it is very easy to control how much you will pay to the bank each month.

Fixed interest rate?

If you get breathing problems from a new interest rate increase, you should consider fixing the interest rate. It will usually be most profitable to choose a floating interest rate. But if you tie the interest rate, you know exactly how much you will pay on the mortgage in the future, and can plan the rest of your finances regardless of interest rate trends. The disadvantage is that you normally have to pay a small insurance premium to lock in the interest rate, which means that the fixed interest rate will probably be around 0.5 percentage points higher on average than the floating rate in the same period per year.

Get rid of the pickpockets?

Are you wasting away? Relax, most people do. A sausage menu here, a soft drink there, some snuff, a caffe latte on the way to work. It may feel like a pittance, but if you add these habits and bad habits together, it's an awful lot of money. Feel free to check the Verdistiftelsen's waste calculator at https://www.verdistiftelsen.no/slosekalkulator to check where the shoe affects your consumption? We humorously call these charges pickpockets, as they take a bit of your wallet every time you give in to temptation. If you want to improve your finances, you have to cut both the big expenses - and the smaller ones, like these.

Are you overinsured?

Perhaps you have travel insurance via the job, which covers both professional and leisure travel. Members of LO already have contents insurance built into the membership fee. What about car insurance? At some point, the car's value will be so low that comprehensive insurance is not worthwhile. In any case, you should send your insurance policies out to 'tenders' to other companies. You will not be paid twice, even if you have twice as much non-life insurance.

Are you underinsured?

It is equally important to check that you and your family are insured in case of illness or accident. You must at least have insurance that is so good that you will be able to live on an income if one of you becomes disabled or dies. Check how much you get from national insurance and work in case of disability. Supplement with collective disability and life insurance from a trade union or job.